


Shadows and Vapor

by theladyscribe



Category: American Gods - Neil Gaiman, Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Crossover, F/M, Immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 23:33:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1836232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/pseuds/theladyscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s only once Bucky has lost track of the years that he begins to realize something’s wrong. He looks at Natasha and sees the changes of age: lines where she used to be smooth, a spray of gray hair where it used to be vibrant red, lips thinned with time. He looks in the mirror and sees the same face he has always seen: wavy brown hair, full lips, the smooth skin of a twenty-five-year-old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows and Vapor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenfoxes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenfoxes/gifts).



> This is a continuation/sequel to [Devils and Dust](http://archiveofourown.org/works/489970), but it is not necessary to read that first. Title is from Bruce Springsteen's "All the Way Home."

After the Avengers are disbanded, Bucky and Natasha go deep underground. All their covers have been blown wide open by a government that thinks it can get by without them. Bucky’s not so sure about that, but he doesn’t really have a say in the matter any more.

So he and Natasha do what they do best: they disappear. And things go really well for a while. It’s like the vacation they always wanted, but without having to go back.

(Of course, they do go back, for a given value of “back.” They have contacts across the world, favors owed to one or both of them, an endless network of information and safehouses and mutually assured destruction.)

It’s only once Bucky has lost track of the years that he begins to realize something’s wrong. He looks at Natasha and sees the changes of age: lines where she used to be smooth, a spray of gray hair where it used to be vibrant red, lips thinned with time. He looks in the mirror and sees the same face he has always seen: wavy brown hair, full lips, the smooth skin of a twenty-five-year-old.

They don’t talk about it, but he knows it’s not good. He isn’t sure if it’s on account of Zola’s experiments or something the Red Room did to him (he thinks it’s the former, or else Natasha would also not be aging). He worries about it, doesn’t know what he’ll do when Natasha is gone (and it’s almost certain she’ll be gone before him, unless they run into trouble). He wonders if it will be safe to come home then, maybe to find Steve, maybe to just get a place back in New York so he can live out his days in peace.

However long that might be.


End file.
